Co-opt the adversary

Republican appointments in a Kerry administration? The original liberal bomb-thrower doesn’t want to hear about it:

I was dismayed to read this in US News:

The Kerry transition team, hastily planning a Democratic administration should their man win, says it wants to put Republicans in the cabinet. “We want to make it clear that a Kerry presidency will unite,” says a Kerry insider, “not divide.”

Have we learned nothing? Bipartisanship is dead. The much beloved John McCain sat silent as Rove & Bush orchestrated the Swift Boat smear, and gave a speech for them right after it. These guys want nothing to do with us, and we should have nothing to do with them.

Oliver Willis’ opposition is entirely understandable; it’s also misplaced. In some parallel universe where the Dems own the White House and both houses of Congress, the “shut ‘em out” policy not only feels good but actually makes sense. We don’t live in that universe. If Kerry wins, he’ll still have to deal with a Congress that’s divided at best, to say nothing of a country still split between red and blue. Kerry would be smart to cherry pick some of those Republicans pushed into moderation by the excesses of the Bushistas (never used that term before; it sounds nice). It’s statesmanlike, something rare in D.C. these days; perhaps even more importantly, it appears to be statesmanlike. It would have the valuable side-effect of helping to push the neocon movement back into the fringes whence it came. Co-opting selected Republicans would help achieve that.

Bush claimed that he would reach out to Democrats, and he flat lied. Kerry’s not only better than that, he’s smarter than that. Polarization won’t end on its own.

Oliver: you gotta reach out, my brother.